Originally Posted by Totenkopf:
Well, Spider, since I didn't kill anyone, I guess that means I'm not a hypocrite.

Neither did you pass the sentence which now hangs over Saddam's ugly bonce. I don't think you'll find that I accused you of either of those things. My final statement on hypocrisy was a general adage. One could call it axiomatic.

I did however touch on the idea that if you don't apply the death penalty fairly and evenly, you are indeed being hypocritical. Which is equally true.

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Originally Posted by Totenkopf:
However, if you can produce the proof that Bush, et al were actively targeting civilians for the hell of it, then I'd agree that under those circumstances you'd have a point.

As Eagle has pointed out, neither did Saddam "target civilians for the hell of it". But frankly, having some spurious reason (WMDs) for one's killings doesn't make the killings more morally excusable.

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Originally Posted by Totenkopf:
But if were gonna get that elastic in deciding responsibility, then why stop there. Surely the world is full of leaders who have contibuted to the deaths of "innocents" worldwide. I guess we should include Tony Blair and any other europeans who joined in this "immoral" endeavor to unseat SH. While we're at it, lets take down the Iranians too, b/c they are far from innocent in the bloodbath we view Iraq as today.

There's nothing "elastic" in that idea. That's applying a general principle universally. If Saddam deserves death for his crimes, then so do all our leaders. If you find that idea incomprehensible, I'd encourage you to go off and self-analyse a little.

I mean, can you think of one single moral reason why Saddam's crimes mean that he deserves death... while the moral crimes of our own leaders do not warrant such a punishment? Because I can't.

If Saddam should die, a lot of other people should also die. Our leaders and the allies of our leaders, the corrupt regimes we support around the world, and those who are quite frankly war criminals from our own ranks who have escaped punishment for their heinous acts since the sixties.

You seem to think this idea is silly... but it's just fairness. Even-handedness. Truth. Without self-delusion.